Phosphors coated with pigments to modify absorptive, reflective or emissive characteristics are well know in the art. In certain applications, the natural brilliant yellowish-green body color of the commonly used copper activated zinc sulfide phosphor is objectionable. Even when a neutral density type glass is used in the face plate, a greenish color still persists. For some display applications a gray or neutral color on the unlit screen is preferred. The traditional pigments used on the above mentioned phosphors are a black pigment such as graphite or a blue pigment such as cobalt aluminate. These pigments are added to the phosphor surface to reduce the amount of ambient room light which is reflected toward the viewer from the phosphor particles on the CRT faceplate. When graphite is applied as a coating to the copper activated zinc sulfide phosphor, the resulting body color is a greenish-gray color which can be quite objectionable. This can be overcome by applying a high coating weight, i.e. 1% of graphite, but this causes a severe loss in light output and efficiency.